This Is Me?
by Imagined-Waif
Summary: What do you do when you suddenly wake up with only a few memories?What if those memories are painful and make hardly any sense?What do you do when you have to go through intensive training and many trials simply because you were forced to carry on your clan's secret?I can tell you what I did, but it isn't always fun and games. OC. Pairing depends on reader's opinions. None for now.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I only own the characters I made up for the purpose of this story.**

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I guess it was almost expected when I suddenly got forced into the body of another girl in a different universe. I mean, I always had dreams that were so vivid they were like memories, but as far as I could tell, I had always been this girl and she had always been me, so we were probably the same person and I really didn't take anything that I wasn't supposed to. Then again, I have never heard of a twelve-year-old waking up naked in a forest and in a daze, realizing that maybe those memories weren't the dream, the life she thought she had was. The other weird thing was that when I found a pond, I looked nearly the same as I did before. Well, after I panicked and washed the dry blood off me and inspected the small wounds on my body before sighing in relief at the fact they had stopped bleeding and then finally taking a closer look at my features. There were just tattoos I didn't know I had, but the dream of getting them came back and made me shutter and cover the tattoo near my eye. There was one of the black tattoos under my left eye, a design that reminded me of the line patterns that sometimes show up on a wolf's coat. The other tattoo was one on the small of my back that I had to twist to see. It was a burn scar in the shape of a paw print that had been filled in with dark ink. That one's memory was so vivid I could still faintly feel the pain caused by the inked needle in my fresh injury.

"Okay, shut up. I need to think." I slapped my cheeks, trying to focus on trying to figure out what it is I was going to do now.

I basically just ended up wandering around until I heard someone coming and curled up in a ball on the ground. Honestly, how many times does anyone ever find anything friendly in the woods? That's what I get for letting a friend convince me to watch horror movies with her. I really don't want to die without figuring out why I'm here though.

"Uh, what are you doing out here little girl?" A slightly muffled voice asked me.

I peeked up to see a cloaked and masked person standing over me.

"Are you alright?"

I shook my head, wondering where I had seen that kind of animal mask before.

"Are you injured?"

I shook my head again as the person, who turned out to be a woman, took off her cloak and gave it to me to cover up in.

"Are you a shinobi?"

I didn't respond, unsure of if I was or not. In my memories, I can't find anything referring to shinobi, and besides, some of the things in the memories are different from now. Like my body and face are more like mine than what they were before. I don't remember much of any training though. I just remember that I was trained, but most of the memories are fragmented or the painful ones I didn't want to think about, so none of them were useful.

"Which village are you from?" The woman asked, motioning for me to come with her.

From what I gather, I didn't come from any particular village I stayed in after the tattoos, but I couldn't remember any names of any places and I think I mostly lived in the form of a black wolf, but I don't think the body or mind that are here now are capable of that. Whatever I had done before to get into that form didn't come to mind right now anyway.

"Do you speak?" She asked, seemingly taking my silence the wrong way.

"I, uh, I don't remember much. I just know I woke up here and I can remember some painful things, but not much else."

She paused to think as we walked, then seemed to reach a conclusion. "I'll take you to the interrogation centre, since we can't have spies in the village. After that, we'll have to ask the Hokage what to do."

I nodded, still slightly confused as to why a lot of the things she said sounded familiar. Shortly after, we came to some gates with a leaf on them that also seemed familiar, then she took me to a blonde man who touched my head and dug around in my brain, then informed the woman who waited patiently for him to finish that I was telling the truth about a lost memory and that I was probably not a spy since I didn't seem to belong to any village with shinobi. He also told her he thought I probably had an odd jutsu of some kind, but he didn't really know for sure. He gave me a smile, but his eyes were sad. I didn't intend for him to see those memories. I don't really understand a lot of them, but he saw the pain in them just the same.

After that, I was brought to the Hokage, which was an old man. He looked kind of familiar too, but I don't think he recognized me at all, so I was probably mistaking him for someone else. Just as the Hokage was about to say something to me, I got dizzy and missed the question. After a few seconds of holding my head in pain from a sudden headache, everything went black.

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**A/N: I'm putting this here for now. I'm not sure if I'll finish this, but I just want to know what people think. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up in a white room with a slight headache. I sat up a little too quickly and my head pounded. I guess I was in a hospital from what I saw between winces. The window was open and a stick flew in and smacked my arm before falling in my lap.

"Ow?" My confused cry of pain sounded as I looked at the red mark on my arm and then at the stick.

"Sorry, I told those kids not to play with those things near open windows." An annoyed girl told me, climbing in said window.

"Uh, okay?" I replied, still utterly confused as I handed her the stick.

She had purple hair, brown eyes and looked like she was about seventeen. She was smiling and seemed friendly. Suddenly, she looked at me closely with a concentrated and curious expression.

"Hey, aren't you the new kid? Your chakra…It's suppressed." She pursed her lips, seeming to have a sense for something I didn't. "Chakra" was a little familiar, but I didn't really know what it meant.

"Uh?"

"Hey, do you know any taijutsu?"

I shook my head.

"What about ninjutsu?"

I shook my head again.

"Genjutsu?"

"No."

"Are you even a shinobi?"

I looked at her strangely. "I don't remember."

"You don't remember?" She frowned, throwing the stick out the window, then snapped her fingers and looked like she got an idea. "How about I retrain you?"

"Uh, okay?"

"How far can you run?"

"Not far." I said, slightly disappointed in myself and lack of stamina.

"One mile." She stated, nodding. "One mile everyday this week. Next week its two."

"What? Why?" I gaped at her.

"Because you need to get in better shape before I teach you taijutsu." She said, crossing her arms. "You can call me Naomi sensei, okay? What's your name?"

I had to think about it for a minute until a name came to mind that I just assumed was mine. "Luna." It sounded right, at least. It'll have to do for now even if it isn't my name.

"Cool, well, let's get you some food and we can talk, then we can do some running."

"Why do we have to run?"

"Shinobi need a lot of stamina for missions that are far away. You should know this stuff, you know." She gave a sigh. "We have a lot of work to do."

"Oh. So, you'll tell me all the stuff I need to know, right?"

"Yeah, I sure will." She ruffled my hair with an excited grin.

Three hours later, I was laying on the grass of the training field, panting and coughing. Everything hurt, especially breathing. Naomi was running circles around me and laughing. I wanted to glare at her, but all my body wanted to do was struggle to breathe normally and close my eyes. I would gratefully welcome sleep if Naomi let me. Of course she didn't. Of course she tried to get me up to train more. I think she might actually be trying to kill me via exhaustion. Whether she wanted me to train more or not, I still collapsed into a dreamless sleep soon enough.

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**A/N: Still introductory chapters. By the way, Kenia, we'll see what happens, okay? Though, they probably won't be more than implications if at all. Sorry for the inconvenience.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Still own nothing but OCs.**

It was six months later and I had been living in an apartment the Hokage had given me for free for the first few months while I got back on my feet, then I had to start working to pay the rent. I worked at a general store when I wasn't training. I was up to 35 kilometres before I would start to hurt everywhere and lose my breath. Naomi turned out to be a very stern sensei and pushed me to my limits nearly every day. It was really hard and I absolutely hated it at first, but now that I've come so far, I really appreciate that she refused to give up on me. Actually, it was the nicest thing I remember anyone ever doing for me. Then again, quite a few memories are missing or really foggy.

Now, she told me to meet her at Ichiraku because she had something important to tell me. I was slightly suspicious it may end up being another surprise training session, but decided to go anyway. When I got there, Naomi was waiting for me and seemed extremely excited. I was almost afraid to approach and considering walking away before she spotted me, but it was too late. She was waving me over frantically.

"Luna! Guess what!"

"You finally passed the chunin exams?" I asked, then laughed when she swatted at me.

"No! Shut up about that!" She whined, then went back to being excited. "The Hokage helped me find a way to unseal your chakra!"

My jaw dropped in shock, but I recovered quickly and started to hurl questions at her in rapid succession. "But we couldn't even figure out why or how it was sealed? How did you convince the Hokage to help you? Let alone find a way to unseal it? What is this unsealing thing you found anyway?"

"I made a bet with him."

I gave her a slightly disappointed look.

"Well, I said if I didn't become a chunin next exam, I would do his paperwork until the next exam and if he could find a way to unseal your chakra, I would do his paperwork anyway. He tracked down this old lady who he wrote a letter to, then she wrote him back telling what was needed along with a scroll. So, now all we have to do is convince the famous copy-ninja to help."

"Wait, who?"

"Kakashi. He's a jonin."

"Oh."

"So, all we've gotta do is convince him to help us out with this." She held up the scroll I assumed was the one she mentioned before.

"How're we gonna do that?"

"I don't know. I figure we'll just ask nicely first." She said while paying for the ramen she ate, then motioning me to follow her to the roof of some building. Honestly, jumping from rooftop to rooftop still kind of freaks me out, but I was too focused on the issue at hand to notice I was doing exceptionally well for not paying full attention.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Well, we'll come up with something."

I grinned at the lack of preparation. "Okay!"

When we found the guy, he was reading a book I recognized as something Naomi told me never to touch. She told me it was really bad. Anyway, the guy had white hair, one eye covered by his slanted forehead protector, and most of his face covered by a black fabric mask, so only one of his eyes were visible. He also had the Leaf's vest on that I often saw shinobi wear after becoming chunin. I personally thought they were heavy and uncomfortable when Naomi made me try on her sensei's, but that's probably just because I'm so physically weak compared to chunins right now that I might as well be a little kid. Or, that's what Naomi said anyway.

"Hey, aren't you Kakashi?" Naomi asked the guy that was closer to her age than he seemed apparently. He seemed pretty mature. Well, I guess it's not hard to seem mature to someone who's getting dragged over by Naomi like I am. Anyway, from what I'm told, he was pretty young when he became a jonin, so I guess that's a reason someone seems mature to me, who is about the same or maybe lower than an academy student skill-wise.

"Yes. What do you need?" He asked, not looking up from his book. He sounded bored, if anything.

"I figure that maybe you could help out my little buddy here and preform this unsealing jutsu on her." Naomi got straight to the point and pushed me out in front of her.

He didn't even look up. "Isn't there someone else to ask?"

"Well, there is, but there's not anyone who would be as effective as you."

"I'm busy." He said, shooting Naomi down quickly.

She pouted and dragged me a couple feet away into a small huddle. We both sighed, then I looked at her with disappointment.

"What're we gonna do now?"

"We'll leave him alone for today." She said while we were walking away. "We'll come back tomorrow."

"Okay, but I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Why does it have to be him?" I asked her, slightly suspicious. "I mean, how does the unsealing jutsu even work?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you the second thing. We need Kakashi because he has a lightning style jutsu that will help unseal all the chakra, not just some."

"That's," I paused, thinking about it for a minute. "Odd. I know he's strong, but isn't there someone with lightning style that would be able to do the same? Hey, you use lightning style. Why can't you do it?"

"I…Don't have the heart for that. I can't tell you about the jutsu, but I can tell you that if I did it, you'd only get a fraction of the chakra you're supposed to have and after the jutsu unseals whatever amount of chakra, you can't do it again to get the rest."

"Why is everything getting so complicated?" I whined.

"Just give it a few days. We'll break him." She smirked mischievously.

"Do you know him or something?"

"I saw him at the Hokage's mansion a couple times, and I heard about him being the Forth's student, but other than that, not really."

"Oh."

And so, we went back and asked him again for three days until she told me to ask him while he was looking up. I guess she figured the problem was that he never even glanced at us once every time we asked.

"Hey, uh, Kakashi?" I asked, looking back at Naomi unsurely, but she just gave me a thumbs up. It didn't help much. How the hell was I supposed to get him to look up?

"I told you I'm too busy to do it." He said, now exasperated with our persistence.

"I wasn't going to ask that." I said irritably, which seemed to catch his interest, since he glanced up. I know I was supposed to ask him again, but something else was bothering me and I couldn't resist.

"Hm?"

"Why won't you do it? I know you're not busy, so don't say that. I want the reason."

He sighed and closed his book. "Look, I don't know how to unseal your chakra. I don't know who told you I do, but I can't do it."

I grinned, happy that Naomi's plan had worked out even if I didn't stick to it completely.

"We have the scroll, you just need to follow it." Naomi said, holding up the scroll.

He sighed. "What's in it for me?"

"Uh, um, Luna will do whatever you tell her to for a year!"

"Well, I am supposed to test a new team. Maybe if they pass I'll get you to train with them, so I don't have to."

"Wow, how respectable of him." Naomi muttered sarcastically. "No one passes his test anyway." She whispered to me.

I just nodded, ignoring Naomi. "Okay, I always need more training. And especially once I get my chakra back."

"Give me a couple days to learn the jutsu." He said, taking the scroll, then disappearing.

Naomi sighed in relief, wiping her forehead. "I can't believe that worked out so well."

I glared at her and crossed my arms. "Are you _kidding_? You just _sold_ me to a guy that we don't know and was reading a pervy book! My chakra better be worth it!" I shouted at her, chasing her down the street while she laughed. Sometimes I think she really likes to torture me or something.

**A/N: To anyone actually reading this, sorry for the delay. I was a bit busy over the last week. Hope you're enjoying the story.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This chapter gets a bit weird and is also where the story will pick up, so if you don't like this type of weird, feel free to stop reading, close your computer, gently set it aside, and run down the street screaming. Okay, it's not ****_that_**** weird, but I did warn you it wasn't typical of most stories. Most things will be explained at some later point, just in case there's questions. Also, this is a pretty long chapter.**

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A few days later, I had been taken to a dark room by Naomi, who quickly left when Kakashi showed up late. As I stood in the middle of the room, Kakashi was writing or drawing some weird characters or something on the floor in a radiating circular shape around me. By the end, I was standing in the middle of many characters that seemed like gibberish to me. It almost gave me a headache just looking at them. I could make out a couple words, but they were lost to my mind when I tried to put together a sentence.

"Are you ready?" Kakashi asked, making me refocus on what was going on.

"Ready for something I know nothing about?" I scoffed, then sighed. "Sorry. I'm nervous. I don't remember my chakra. Or what it'll do to me." I bit my lip, looking around nervously.

He gave me a weird look like I was blubbering crazy talk.

I took a deep breath and gave an awkward smile. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

He paused, then just nodded and put a hand on top of my head, which just emphasized how short I was compared to him and served to annoy me. He mumbled something that sounded like a chant. As he did so, I felt the ink from the floor crawl up my skin until it covered my entire body. Once the ink stopped, he took his hand away, but didn't stop mumbling the chant I couldn't understand as he charged lightning chakra into his hand. It made a chirping sound that hurt my head. I couldn't even think due to the sound being unnaturally loud inside my head, but I also had to close my eyes from the brightness. Somehow, I knew that I was close to dead when he hit me with that attack. Well, it at least knocked me out, since everything went dark and I couldn't see the light on the other side of my eyelids anymore.

That's when all the weird started. At first, everything was black. Then, it was white, then I was in a field where it was raining, but it felt odd. There was a brief moment of confusion and utter silence before the sound of the rain and grass came, accompanied by the smell. I then felt something behind me and spun around to see a wolf sitting there. It wasn't black like the one I remembered being once. It was glowing with a lot of different colours. This wolf was also about the same height as me, even on four legs. It's eyes were closed and I just stood there staring at it in wonder and awe until the eyes opened slowly. I was expecting glowing eyes to match the fur, but was surprised. They were normal eyes, the same colour as mine, just more canine-like. When it spoke, it seemed like the voice came from all directions inside my head instead of into my ears.

"Nice to finally meet my vessel. It took you long enough to figure out how to unseal me. And you got all of me, too. You must've had an impressive lightning user kill you."

"Kill me?" I asked in shock, then shook my head, trying to put my priorities in order. "What are you?"

"Your chakra."

"But…I thought you couldn't talk to your chakra?" I asked in confusion. This wasn't what Naomi told me about chakra at all.

The wolf laughed. "You don't remember, do you? Your clan has special chakra."

"Special?" I inquired skeptically, crossing my arms.

"Well, I guess it's more of a secret jutsu unique to the clan, but it isn't approved by the villages, so they got cast out and lived their own life in the forest."

"What?" I gasped in shock.

The wolf rolled its eyes. "We'll have time to talk about this later. You need to get me a rabbit, a cat, and a snake."

"Why?"

"It's what we need to feast on. Now go."

"But I don't have anything to catch them with." I said, looking down at the naked outline of my body that was glowing softly with my pale skin colour.

"Idiot!" The wolf yelled, it's body making a furious barking motion, then the expression stayed in a snarl as the voice continued. "You have claws! You have teeth! You have legs! Use them! Hunt!"

I surprisingly wasn't frightened of this. The words sounded extremely familiar. I wasn't sure how well it would work, but I ran to the small batch of trees and started to look for one of the animals I needed. After what felt like an hour, I found a sharp rock and had started to attempt to carve a sharp end to a stick I found. After many scrapes and scratches to my hands, I had managed to get the end sharp enough to stab something with. Though, you'd think after this long I would be used to being naked, but I felt pretty uncomfortable still. Even if you couldn't make out features with this soft glowing.

"Aha!" I shouted after spotting a rabbit's hole near a tree.

Unfortunately, that caught the attention of a bear nearby and soon I was on a tree branch scared for my life and nearly in tears as I waited for it to go away. Thankfully, the bear didn't seem to notice me and stopped looking for what the noise was. What seemed like a long time after it went away, a rabbit slowly came out of the hole and I tried my best to leap down onto it. Unfortunately, when I tried to grab it, the pressure made a snapping sound in it's neck and I had a limp rabbit in my hands.

"Oh my-Bunny! I'm so sorry! But I really need my chakra back!" I apologized to the rabbit with tears in my eyes, then picked it up and went to find the wolf.

When I found the wolf in the same place, it seemed delighted. I dropped the rabbit in front of it, cringing slightly. I still felt bad for killing it.

"Now we eat." The wolf said, ripping into the rabbit's stomach.

I nearly gagged and turned away. "You go ahead."

"You need to eat at least a bite."

"Why?" I asked, utterly repulsed by the idea.

The wolf sighed irritably. "You really don't remember initiation, do you? You'd think after being killed twice you'd know something." It didn't give me a chance to respond. "Eat or you will not get your chakra back and die."

I gulped. "Okay, one bite." I said, reluctantly picking off a bit of the rabbit and eating it. I had to force it down, but I really wanted to throw it back up when I swallowed the last bit. I felt sick.

"Now go get the cat."

"Do I have to eat a bite of it too?" I asked with horror.

"Yes."

I groaned and took my sharp stick, off to wander around for a long time before coming across what looked like a stray house cat. When it came up to me, I apologized profusely when I closed my eyes and stabbed it, then brought it back to the wolf. It was odd, since it seemed a bit smaller now. It was again happy when it bit into the cat and I had to force down a bite of it. It was easier this time and I didn't gag. I was surprised to find that I was hungry and actually wanted more. The wolf's laugh brought me out of the internal conflict I had while looking at the cat in a twisted type of anguish.

"If you want more, you should have it."

"I..Don't." I shook my head and turned away.

"You can't lie to me. I'm your chakra."

I bit my lip, then regretfully let the urge take over and had more of the cat. I had three more bites, then I made myself stop and wondered what was wrong with me as I went off to find a snake. I beat myself up about it, but something in me felt like it was _right_. How screwed up is that? It definitely wasn't right at all!

It took a long time, then I finally caught a snake by stabbing it in the head. Instead of the apology, this time, I just grinned. I felt satisfied with my successful hunt. When I brought the snake back to the now normal sized wolf, we feasted together on the snake and what was left of the other carcasses. By the time I finished eating, the wolf was gone and I was on four paws. I didn't hear a reply when I called out for it, I only heard a barking noise from my own mouth. I found a pond, seeing my reflection being a timber-coloured wolf with hazel eyes and markings like my tattoo on the fur beneath my left eye.

After I registered that I was the wolf now and the black wolf was someone else's memory, I woke up with a start and sat straight up. I was breathing heavily and when I looked at my hands, I knew I was human again. I also noticed that I was in a hospital room once again. I looked around, wondering how long I had been knocked out. The last conscious thing I remember was the pain of being hit by Kakashi's lightning chakra.

"L-Luna?" The familiar voice of Naomi brought my attention to the open hospital room's door. She seemed pale and had shock written all over her face.

"Naomi sensei." I smiled cheerfully at her. "I got it back."

"I…I know, but…" She shook her head and smiled, running over and hugging me. "I'm glad it worked. I knew you could do it. I believed in you!" She said, but it didn't seem whole-hearted and she let go of me quickly. It looked like she was quite shaken up.

"Wait, what were you saying before? What's wrong?" I asked, worry seeping into my expression and wiping the smile off my face.

She sighed and sat in the chair near my bed, looking at me as if she couldn't understand something. "Your chakra. I didn't think it would be that much. You've got just a little more than average for your age."

I grinned. "Because I'm awesome, that's why."

She laughed shallowly. "Yeah, okay. Just take it easy today and go thank Kakashi, okay?"

I nodded. "I feel different, but I should adjust soon."

"You seem different too." Naomi mumbled while leaving the room swiftly.

Brushing off Naomi's odd behaviour, I found Kakashi soon enough, assuming a bit of his chakra remained after he attacked me for the jutsu, so it was pretty easy to track the scent of it. Wait, did I just track someone by scent? Odd. I didn't know I could do that. He looked up from his book when I approached.

"You survived that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

I nodded. "I wanted to thank you for your help. I got my chakra back thanks to you."

"You don't owe me anything. I could've killed you, so we're even."

I blinked in shock. "Actually, I was about to ask how long I was out."

"Two months."

"Did that team pass your test?"

"Yes."

"Then, let me keep my part of the deal and train with you and them. Naomi seems…Weird. I'm not sure about tomorrow, but let me know if and when I can train with you guys."

"Fine." He sighed as if something were bothering him, but I assumed it was just his new team.

"Okay, see you later." I waved and left, going back home to eat something and clean up the place.

That night, I ran a fever and blacked out. When I woke up, I was perfectly fine, but it felt like I hadn't slept. I noticed a clump of fur on my bed and picked it up. It was a shade of brown similar to the wolf I saw in the coma dream. Odd. I disregarded it quickly though, as I was late for training. Surely Naomi would give me an earful about it since I involuntarily took off two months.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto.**

"Ow, ow, ow." I repeated as Naomi smacked my head for being late. "Sorry, but I think I'm still recovering."

She just sighed in response and pointed to the tree. "Climb it."

"Uh, why?" I gave her an odd look.

She rolled her eyes. "Walk up it. I need to know if you can control your chakra or not."

"Huh?"

She gave an exaggerated sigh and walked up the tree rather than climbing it and stood upside down on the branch. "This is what you can do when you concentrate chakra into your feet and make it stick to things."

I crossed my arms. "I think I've done that before." I said, remembering hanging upside down more than once.

She walked down the tree and motioned for me to do it. I tested it by putting a foot on the tree, but it slipped down.

"Concentrate. Maybe even have a running start." Naomi told me, keeping her distance as I tried again.

I got a little bit up the tree's trunk before I fell flat on my back. I gave a frustrated growl as I laid there and glared at the tree.

"Here, mark how far you get with this once you pass the first branch." She said, tossing a kunai at the tree I was attempting to climb.

"Where're you going?"

"I have a team of my own, you know."

"Oh, you're going to train with them?"

"Yeah, and the Hokage is assigning you a team in two days. Iruka sensei's going to test you to become a gennin first though. So, brush up with these after you get to the top of the tree." She tossed me a couple scrolls labeled with basic jutsu.

"So, you're not teaching me anymore?" I asked, sitting up and looking at her back while she walked away.

"I can't teach a monster." Her voice was harsh and cold, but shook slightly.

My eyes went wide. "M-monster? What do you mean?"

"Your chakra. I can't tell you anything but the basics. You know all the basic taijutsu and those scrolls will tell you about the basic ninjutsu they teach at the academy as well as a tiny bit more."

"W-What?"

She whirled around with clenched fists. "I'm not teaching you anymore! Don't ever speak to me again! I am not friends with a monster like you!" She shouted angrily, shooting me a hateful look before walking away.

I sat there in shock, feeling the wetness on my cheeks as I watched her back get further and further away. I thought she was my friend. Just then, it seemed like I was seeing someone else's back.

A woman with long black hair wearing a traditional kimono. The sky was full of stars and there were small fires nearby with people around them watching me with disapproving eyes as she walked away. I got the feeling she was my mother and had just said nearly the same thing Naomi had said to me. It rang in my head as I thought about what it was.

_"You may be a young child, but your chakra is horrid. You are not my child. I cannot teach a child with the chakra of a monster. Never speak to my family again! Live alone! You should be killed, but the pack's leader has denied the death of a child that will be a good weapon if he harnesses it."_

_"But, Mother I-"_ A child's voice I recognized as my own started to say weakly, sounding like I was crying then too.

_"You are not my child! Do not speak to my family you monster!"_ She cut me off, sending a hate-filled glare over her shoulder before disappearing.

The memory disappeared with her as I saw the forest, Naomi nowhere in sight now. I thought about curling up in a ball and just sobbing, but quickly shook the idea away and stood up. I turned and grabbed the kunai from the tree, forcefully wiping my eyes.

"No, I need to get stronger. I need to get on a good team. I need to become a gennin of the Hidden Leaf!" I told myself, focusing completely on the training.

I didn't sleep that night, instead I reached the top of the tree, then started to read the scrolls and learn the ninjutsu. I think I was just trying too hard to cause distractions for myself. I didn't need more painful memories haunting me at such a crucial point in my life in the Hidden Leaf Village. I was determined to be a gennin and help the village. No matter what.


	6. Chapter 6

After two days of training, I wasn't great at the transformation jutsu or the clone one, but I was decent enough. It wasn't really a matter of learning the techniques but rather remembering how to do them again. It wasn't like the jutsu's were completely useless when I preformed them at least. I gained gennin status by completing the test of making two decent clones and displaying my target practice. Iruka sensei congratulated me, then stood by the Hokage.

"Luna, you will be on Team 14. Min's team." The third told me quickly, obviously busy and wanting to get back to the paperwork piled on his desk.

I nodded slowly. "Thank you." I said, accepting the forehead protector. "I will serve the Leaf as best as I can."

He gave a small chuckle after a short silence. "That's good. Remember that when you start going on missions."

I nodded, turning to leave. I tied the Leaf's symbol around my neck, then headed straight to the training field where my new team was supposed to be waiting. When I got there, a woman waved me over to where she was standing with a boy around my age. She was real pretty, with short dark brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and orange eyes. She wore something like a sleeveless dress which was a tan colour and has slits in the sides nearly up to her hips, but had fishnet leggings down to her shins while the dress only reached about the middle of her thighs. Her forehead protector was placed in the proper location, but a part of her bangs was hanging over it a little. The boy with her had red hair, and his eyes were a grey colour. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of dark blue pants. His forehead protector was also on his forehead, but was completely visible, since his short hair stuck up instead of hanging over his face. He looked up from fiddling with a kunai when I approached. He took a step back and I stopped and felt the pang of sadness from the frightened look he gave me. Subconsciously, my hand gripped the fabric just over where the pang in my heart was.

"My name is Min, but you'll call me Min sensei from now on. This is Yuuta, your teammate. Asami is visiting someone at the hospital, so she'll be coming a little bit later." The woman spoke up with a friendly smile.

I nodded, then held out my hand to Yuuta. "I hope we can become friends as well as work well together." I told him, but he just took another step back. My small smile faltered at this.

"He's a natural at sensing chakra." Min said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Um, Min sensei?" I started, dropping my hand to my side while looking down, feeling dejected. "Is there something wrong with my chakra?"

She was silent for a second, then a hand on my shoulder made me look up to see her grinning at me. "There's nothing wrong with you or your chakra. It's just different, not bad different, just plain old different. People in this village aren't used to your chakra, so don't worry about them."

I looked at her with my mouth slightly open in awe, wanting to say something, but not being able to think of anything to say to her. "That's-Thank you."

She patted my head. "Now you'll have to work extra hard on concealing your chakra though, so no one will focus on it instead of you. Got that?"

I nodded with renewed determination. "I will!" I then turned to Yuuta, who was watching us with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "Will you shake my hand when I learn to do that?"

He didn't say anything, just turned around and went to start training. Despite that, I smiled with relief. He didn't look as frightened of me as he did when I first approached.

"I look forward to that day." I said quietly, my drive becoming more powerful at the thought of having comrades as well as friends.

Then I remembered what Kakashi said about his team.

"Um, Min sensei, are you going to test us before you let us be on your team?"

She looked at me with a grin. "Yeah, but don't worry, it's easy. I'll test you when Asami gets here though, so let me start teaching you how to hide your chakra while we're waiting on her."

* * *

"Don't give up. You're improving. It just takes practice." Min sensei was saying after an hour of teaching me to conceal my chakra. "Some can't do it at all."

"How did you know I could?" I asked curiously.

"Well, I didn't. I figured if after an hour nothing happened, you couldn't."

"So, I can't?"

"No, no, you can. If you couldn't, your chakra wouldn't have dulled slightly just a minute ago when you were concentrating so hard."

"Oh, okay." I grinned, about to try again.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" A blonde girl came running up to us standing up while Yuuta wandered over to meet our other teammate.

She had some packed lunches and was wearing a dark blue skirt and a matching tank top that exposed her stomach that was covered with a fishnet. When she looked up at us, I saw that her eyes were a violet colour and she seemed like a bright and happy person. She smiled at Yuuta and Min sensei, then gave me an odd look, but shook it off and smiled at me too. A feeling of relief washed over me when she decided not to treat me like I was an outcast. I hadn't realized I was so nervous until that happened.

"I'm Asami. I hope we'll work well together as a team!" She said cheerfully.

"Okay, okay, we have a test to do." Min sensei clapped her hands, getting our attention.

"What's the test?" Asami asked curiously.

"You need to take out that tree." She pointed to an extremely thick tree nearby.

We all three gave her 'are you serious' looks.

"Okay, no, that isn't all. You have to do it together." She said, not picking up on how weird we thought that test was and instead taking it as us not thinking that was all there was.

"Okay, let's try this!" Asami cheered, looking at the tree.

We started out by trying to push it over, then we started hitting it. Nothing seemed to work, but soon enough, we were down to discussing what our plan of action should be. Well, Asami and I did. Yuuta hasn't said a thing to any of us yet. Actually, he probably spoke to Min sensei before I came, but that's not the point. We came to the conclusion that Asami would use an earth style jutsu to uproot it and Yuuta and I would push it over while she did that. It took a good half an hour, but we finally got the tree to fall over. Asami and I high-fived and Yuuta just had a faint smirk on his face while Min sensei was congratulating us and saying we had passed and now were officially Team 14.

"Now you can all have the rest of the afternoon off. Tomorrow morning we'll start training." Min sensei said, quickly leaving.

"Hey, let's go to Ichiraku together to celebrate!" Asami suggested excitedly.

"I have a little money." I said shrugging.

"Great!" Asami grinned and turned to Yuuta. "What about you, Yuuta?"

He shrugged and came with us.

Asami and I talked and soon began talking like we had been friends for a while rather than just a few hours. Yuuta didn't say much and ate slowly while Asami and I both ate three bowls of ramen before stopping. Yuuta only nodded or shook his head or shrugged when we asked him stuff. Otherwise, he just listened to us.

"Hey, did you hear about Naruto yet? You didn't grow up here, so you probably don't know, but he was at the bottom of the class when he graduated from the academy. He was always pulling pranks too. My parents told me not to talk to him though." Asami said, pouting a bit.

"Mine did too. But I don't think he ever seemed that bad." Yuuta commented with a blank face.

He looked at us funny when all he got in return was Asami and I gaping at him.

"What?"

"You talk?" Asami asked. "I thought maybe you were mute or something."

"I just didn't feel like speaking." He muttered, looking down at his bowl again.

"Are you blushing?" Asami asked, being the one sitting in the middle and seeing his face better than I could. She leaned and looked at his face while he turned his head away. She started laughing. "You're blushing! Aw! So cute!"

"Sh-Shut up!" He started to quickly finish his ramen. "I'm going now!"

"Okay. See you!" Asami waved.

"Wait up!" I called after him, leaving my money on the counter to cover my ramen as well as Yuuta's, since he forgot in his rush to leave. "See you tomorrow Asami!"

To my surprise, he was actually waiting for me when I left the ramen stand. He looked curious and slightly suspicious, but let me walk beside him. I made sure to keep my distance though, careful not to make him uncomfortable. I was terrified of screwing up a possible friendship.

"Hey, Yuuta? Why did you start talking suddenly?"

He looked a bit surprised. "I…Asami's chakra is relaxing. It took a while to get used to your chakra, but when her chakra and yours are together…It's an odd combination and I had to adjust to it too, but when I did, I started to feel comfortable."

"I see. I'm not so good at sensing chakra, but from what I hear, if you're real sensitive to it, it gets hard sometimes."

"Yeah. I have a question for you too." He was quick to change the subject.

"What is it?"

"Why is your chakra so odd?" He stopped and gave me a serious look.

I sighed, shaking my head and furrowing my brow. "I only remember bits and pieces of where I came from. It's coming back really slowly, but I think it has something to do with these tattoos and how I got it back."

"How did you get your chakra back?"

"A wolf. I had to hunt for a wolf. It said something about initiation."

He frowned, seeming to go into deep thought for a minute before running off and calling, "I have to go. See you tomorrow."


	7. Chapter 7

Four months later, we were getting along quite well as a team on our simple D-rank missions. We had also been training pretty hard. To be honest, I think Yuuta and Asami were competing a bit. I trained so hard because I didn't want to hinder the team and my chakra was a bit hard to control once I started learning new jutsus. Min sensei was real encouraging though, considering my teammates had families to teach them clan jutsus and I had to figure most of mine out on my own. I at least knew I used a not so basic chakra style. The paper that was supposed to tell what type I used had an odd reaction of having a paw print matching the one on my back appear onto the centre of the paper. Min sensei said she'd go talk to the Hokage about it. It's kind of odd it doesn't have an element though.

Today, Yuuta was walking with me, having said he wanted to show me something. He seemed a bit excited, but also a little nervous.

"So, Asami's not coming?" I asked, looking around for her. Usually Yuuta would disappear with Asami or by himself while Asami and I stayed to train a little more or just hang out.

"No, why would she?" He gave me an odd look.

"I dunno." I shrugged, then noted that we were entering the library, then going into the archives. "What're we doing?" I asked as he went to grab an old-looking book.

"I've been looking for your clan. Based on what you told me, I think I might've found it." He said, flipping open the old book that seemed to be keeping records of the village's clans and their known abilities in as little detail as possible. "I haven't found the actual scroll though."

"What? Why?" I asked, sitting on my knees on the chair in front of the table he had the book on.

He looked up from his spot across from me and smirked. "I was curious."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious. Why would you do that?"

"Okay, it's also because the Hokage asked me to." He sighed.

"Why not one of his people?"

"He wanted me to because I'm your teammate. And because he has a feeling it wouldn't be good if word got around."

I crossed my arms, both of us becoming completely serious. "Is it bad?"

"It's horrifying."

"Does that effect your opinion of me?" I asked nervously.

He shook his head. "It's how you were raised, but you don't seem to remember a lot of it."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Okay, just tell me."

"Here," He turned the book toward me and pointed to the page. "This clan's called the Torikabuto. It was kicked out of a lot of villages until they decided to form their own small place in the woods. It operated like a wolf pack once on it's own and they attacked any ninja they came across, or so reports said. According to the Hokage, the clan just completely disappeared last year. Some ANBU were looking around where the clan was, but most of the houses were on fire and they only found about twenty-five dead bodies. That's about the same time they found a girl about half a day's trip from that village."

I nodded. "The girl was me. I think I remember that the clan was getting smaller, but there were at least forty. They probably left to another land." I then looked down at the book to start reading the page and a half on my clan.

"Are you sure it's even them?"

"I will be after I read this."

"You know they kept the Torikabuto clan secret after they started living like wolves. I think it was because they didn't want to admit there were ninja that had to unseal their chakra and also branded the children once they completed initiation and actually preferred to act like animals rather than be outcasts. The book doesn't have details, but maybe you'll remember something because of it."

I nodded, looking it over and reading about the clan's background. After about ten minutes of reading and rereading the section, I started to get a painful headache and shut my eyes, gripping my head. Images flashed though my mind, including the fact I had been covered in blood and ash and had to wash it off in a stream a little while before that ANBU found me. The wounds I had washed when I woke up were still bleeding when I had done that though. I remembered my first initiation when I was four, which consisted of the same animals in the same order that I had to hunt for. The difference was the wolf was like a shadow and it's voice wasn't inside my head. I remembered weeks of stealing from people I used to call friends when I was eleven, then I remembered looking at the blood and ash on my hands and panicking. That was it. No in between times, no explanation for the blood and ash, no fond memories. It was just painful.

"Hey, Luna? Are you alright?" Yuuta's worried voice reached me.

"I, uh, I don't know." I mumbled, looking at my hands, then back at the book. I noticed the drawing of a paw print on the page, but it looked different from my tattoo. Who was this from? No, it wasn't anyone's. It was a cheap generalization of the branding we received. For some reason, this angered me. I quickly shook the feeling off.

"Did you remember something?"

I shook my head. "Nothing important. It's just the looks…" I trailed off, cringing at the hateful looks thrown my way after initiation in my memory. The same one Naomi gave me when she stopped teaching me. As if I were a monster. I was just a kid! I still am! Why would they hate a kid so much?!

"Alright." He agreed unsurely. "What about the clan? Is it yours?"

I looked at the name again, then slowly nodded. "I think so. The initiation, the first one, the wolf told me something about being apart of the Torikabuto clan. It's still a bit fuzzy."

"Do you wanna use that for your surname?"

I felt like it would be wrong to use the name, so I shook my head. "Torika. Just Torika."

Yuuta grinned at me. "Luna Torika, huh? Come on, we should go tell the Hokage."

I nodded as he closed the book, then went to put it away. The Hokage approved of the shortening of the name, especially since I was still young and didn't remember much of the clan. He told me to let him know if I remember anything important about the clan. Despite being exiled by the Second Hokage, the clan was still something the Third wanted to know more about.


End file.
